Adam McQuaid, Dennis Seidenberg join Bruins' non-contact practice

Injured Bruins defensemen Adam McQuaid and Dennis Seidenberg joined several teammates for an optional non-contact practice Monday morning after earlier skating on their own.

By Dan CagenDaily News staff

BOSTON — Injured Bruins defensemen Adam McQuaid and Dennis Seidenberg joined several teammates for an optional non-contact practice Monday morning after earlier skating on their own.

McQuaid (quad) and Seidenberg (ACL) have both been out long term and have been skating separately from teammates for two weeks. They hit the ice for over a half-hour with strength and conditioning coach John Whitesides around 10 a.m. Monday morning at TD Garden, then returned around 11 a.m. with some teammates.

“I went to our trainers and asked if it was OK for [Seidenberg] and McQuaid to skate with the rest of our team because there's no contact, no drills,” coach Claude Julien said. “It's the same drills they did when they went on the ice earlier. A lot of it is for encouragement reason. Just those two on the ice together for a while gets tough, but being out there with more players and do a little more, it's exciting for them.

“I thought mentally, it would be a good opportunity to meet with the rest of the guys because of the type of practice we were having.”

Injured forward Daniel Paille also took part in the optional practice. He's been out over a week with a head injury and began skating Saturday. Chris Kelly (back) did not skate and hasn't been on the ice in two weeks. Julien said both would need to take contact before returning to the lineup, so Paille should not be expected to play in Tuesday's Game 3.

Also doing the optional practice were Jordan Caron, Shawn Thornton, Torey Krug, Corey Potter and Chad Johnson. The Bruins left for Detroit immediately after, with the game at Joe Louis Arena on Tuesday night.

Seidenberg underwent surgery to repair a torn right ACL on Jan. 7, now 15 weeks ago. He was originally expected to miss 6-8 months.

“According to our trainers and our doctors, they thought he'd be going through that [recovery] process and at one point he'd be skating before next season,” Julien said. “So he's on track right now, probably even a little ahead of the curve because of his conditioning and how strong he was, even before that injury. I guess he's a well-trained individual, and those guys have a tendency — athletes have a tendency — to recover a little quicker than the normal person. He's on that track right now."